Commissioners table road change request

At the November 15 Hot Springs County Commissioners board meeting, a public hearing was held for the Crimson View Estates Plat Revision. The applicant Ross Woolley on behalf of the Crimson View Estates lot owners has requested approval of an amendment to a plat changing the road dedication language on the Miller-Schmidt Subdivision Plat (aka Crimson View Estates). The current language dedicated to all subdivision roads, including the northern portion of Lane 14, “to the public’’ would be changed to “...are intended for residential use only, and are maintained as private roadways for the benefit of Crimson View Estates owners, their guests, and invitees.”

County Planner Bo Bowman reported to the commissioners that the Land Use Planning Commissioners (LUPC) recommended approving the application. Bowman added, “The Planning Commission was very concerned about making sure that this change in language would not deny anyone who presently has access to Lane 14, the continued use of that road. And that is not the intent of the applicants. All properties on Lane 14 have easements to use Lane 14. They are not being excluded, and the intent is not to exclude anyone but to basically emphasize the fact that Lane 14 is a private road and that the roads within the subdivisions are also private.”

Chairman Tom Ryan asked for public comments and engineer Anthony Barnett said regarding St. Paul’s Lutheran Church, “When the church sold that project or sold the property under Lane 14 to Mr. Miller and Schmidt, that where it was expected that the road would be dedicated to the public so the church and or anybody that followed would have access to the church property. As it was church property to begin with, there is no easement to the church for utilities… that was the original intent of the plat.”

During the discussion of the church, Chairman Ryan said, “I can understand why they didn’t take an easement because it made it a public roadway.” Commissioner Phil Scheel added, “If we were to pass this action today, that no longer becomes a public roadway.”

As the public comments continued Rick Hudson said, “I’ve been a land surveyor for about 52 years and to my knowledge, I have never run into a situation where a plat was being asked to vacate from the dedication of the plan to the public to a private entity. And I think that when you do finally reach a decision on this matter, it’s going to set a precedent, because I’ve talked to other surveyors and engineers around the state. None of us have ever been confronted with this information where it goes from the public to the private. We’ve all seen examples of a mixture between public and private. Sage Valley is a classic example. There are public roads through there and there are also private roads… I guess I would like to see some sort of a policy as to how you go about doing this with the plat, whether you vacate the plat and redo it, or whether it’s an amendment, I don’t see any precedent statewide at all.”

Brian Strampe, who was present in the meeting representing Crimson View Estates, said, “This whole issue kind of got started with the Red Rim Ranch development. They came to the public meeting and said that they had an easement to use Lane 14 and they would not show that to anybody. And we searched as much as we could and we could not find one. And then they came to the next meeting and indicated that after the issue was tabled, they were going to amend their plan to not connect Lane 14 on their property boundary to the southern end of Lane 14 where it stops. So to get it untabled, they said they were going to amend their plot plan. But the plat that was approved did not have that amendment in it. It shows their internal road going all the way to their boundary to connect with Lane 14. So that indicated to us ill intent. We didn’t know what their intent actually was, and we did not, as homeowners, understand what ‘dedicated to the public’ meant on our plat.

Strampe continued and said, “So we hired an attorney. They gave us their interpretation that said that, yes, if the road was dedicated to the public, that would allow Red Rim Ranch to use it as an ingress and egress out of their subdivision. So that’s kind of the whole thing from our view of we’re not necessarily trying to exclude people on the lane or users on the lane as it’s being used now, but in a lot subdivision…” Chairman Ryan said, “We create a lot more traffic.’

The commissioners voted to table the application and they, along with County Attorney Jill Logan, will look into the concerns presented. They will return to the matter on December 20.

The commissioners held a second public hearing for the Christensen Land Use Change from Industrial to Agricultural, which was its original use. The property contained no structures. The LUPC gave their recommendation to the commissioners. Chairman Ryan asked for public comments, but there were none. The commissioners voted and passed the approval of the land use change.

The commissioners also voted and passed Rose Basko’s petition for the inclusion of Blake and Renee Wagler into Owl Creek Water District. 

Jackie Dorothy represented the Travel and Tourism Board and said, “We are working closely with the state and they have a new data system that they just put out there. We no longer have to go out and pay for all this information. They’re going to be giving it to us on a quarterly basis.”

Dorothy also said, “I pulled out some information I thought was interesting. Currently, Park County is actually still affected by the Yellowstone closure. But we have seen our lodging actually increase. July we were hit hard with the credit card spend and I thought this was interesting. I included it in the increase that they’ve seen in the average spend with the card holders is up 24% just last month. And this all relates to tourism and people coming in.”

The Hot Springs County Museum’s new director Connie Gifford introduced herself to the commissioners. Gifford was born and raised in Thermopolis and moved away, but came back. Gifford said, “I just love Thermopolis and all the people and I’m so excited to be with you… I really want to push hard for people in Thermopolis to come to the museum. I know we like tourists, we love tourists, in fact. We’re working on some things like travel and tourism and to get all those tourists to know where we are. We’re kind of hidden. We just want to bring ourselves forward and to make sure that not only the tourists, but the people of Thermopolis come.” Chairman Ryan thanked Gifford for coming in and visiting with them.

The commissioners held a discussion to set the liquor catering fee. County Clerk Becky Kersten said that this related to a particular licensee holder that contacted her about being able to cater outside their establishment. Kersten contacted the state and found they are allowed to do this one time up to 36 times per year for each license holder, for them to cater outside their establishment. They could charge a maximum of $50 for the catering fee. The commissioners asked if this was just in the county and if it was in the city they did something.

Kersten replied, “They have to get permission from anyone. So if they come into the city, they have to have permission from us first because we’re their license holder. And then they also have to get permission from any other entity that would be involved in. If they decide to go into Park county, they have to have our county and our commission. Then they just have to display a 24-hour permit. It sounds like it’s going to be a fairly easy process.”

The commissioners voted and passed the approval of the liquor catering fee for $50.

Bo Bowman presented road name change affidavits for the Red Rim Ranch Plat and Sable Run Plat. This issue was originally started by the Fire Department which said some of the names were confusing and might be a problem in an emergency. For the Red Rim Ranch subdivision, the original names of “Canyon View Loop” and “Canyon View Court” will become “Pronghorn Loop” and “Jackrabbit Court” respectively. For the Sable Run subdivision, “Canyon View Drive” will be modified to differentiate between “North” and “South.” The new names will be “North Canyon View Drive” and “South Canyon View Drive.”

The commissioners voted and passed the approval of the name changes.

The commissioners held a discussion with John Gerrells about the possibility of installing handrails in the fairground bleachers. This need was brought by some disabled or elderly people who wanted to attend events but could not because they felt unsafe ascending or descending the steps on the bleachers. In the discussion, the commissioners want to have a structural engineer look into the matter and determine the costs involved. 

There was also discussion about the fair building bathrooms with the desire to remodel them and allow privacy. There was a comment that some potential venue renters turn away from the fair building because of the conditions of the bathrooms. 

In other business, the commissioners voted and passed the approval to reappoint Shurie Scheel to the Nature and Discovery Center Board. Commissioner Phil Scheel recused himself from the vote. 

The commissioners also have no objections to the Scheel Well Permit Application for a 300 feet drill. The commissioners also voted and passed the approval of the Shumway point of diversion and the right of way permit application for Sue Jackson.